NAS8000 and Windows Storage Server Question

[itsp1965]

Folks a customer has asked we re-build a NAS8000 server running SQL Server.. As far as I know the NAS8000 runs only Windows Storage Server 2003 and you cannot let it run as an application server but just as what it is a Windows file server only. Can someone please verify that this is the case. Thanks.

 

[MarkhP]

Q. Can devices based on Windows Storage Server 2003 R2 be used for tasks other than storage?

A. No, these devices are specifically designed to be file servers with large amounts of storage capacity. They cannot be used to deploy business applications such as Microsoft SQL Server or Microsoft Exchange Server. Backup, antivirus, and other applications typically used in a file serving environment are supported along with any embedded database functionality including SQL Server and/or MSDE.

From

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserversystem/wss2003/productinformation/FAQ/default.mspx

 

[itsp1965]

Thanks Mark, I got that also from MS. Apparently though it seems that these NAS devices come without an OS, so in this case the customer was able to install standard Windows 2003 server and was able to run the box as an app server.
This is kinda dumb on MS/HP's part since as far as I am concerned you should NOT be able to install a standard version of the OS.